Argosy, Vol. 1 (December 9, 1882) — page 196: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A THREE MAN BREEZE. BY CAPTAIN HENRY P. HARRISON. Castaways as the result of a submarine earthquake—The peculiar craft which picked them up and the extraordinary fashion in which they are made to’ work their passage. MORE years ago than I care to remember, I was mate of a Salam brig called the Arethusa. We were on a trading voyage in the South Pacific, and one morning I came on deck to find the brig totally becalmed about two hundred miles to the eastward of the Pearl Islands. Now generally speaking it is seldom so calm even in tropic seas but that the under swell, which is really the ocean’s heart throb, 1s not felt to a greater - or less extent. And, as seafarers will tell you, the dead calm suddenly follow- ing a heavy gale is of far more discomfort than the gale itself for this reason. Without a breath of wind to steady her, the vessel is rolled and pitched and tossed by the long smooth swells in the most exasperating manner. But on this occasion no mill pond could have been smoother than was the surface of the sea. As I stood staring over the taffrail my sunburned, bearded face looked upward at me as though reflected from a great mirror. Hot? I could not bear my hand on the wood work, much less on the brass guard rail. The pitchy deck planks were like hot iron; the sun blazed down from an unclouded sky till the stifling air seemed to quiver like the rising heat from a blast furnace. Curiously, the one least affected by the heat was our second officer, a young fellow from New England, Joe Raymond by name. But Raymond’s was one of those happy go lucky natures that can adapt themselves to almest any circumstances. Though a comparatively young man, his life had been a strange one, he having been a wanderer all over the navigable globe, since at the tender age of twelve he ran away to sea. ‘“ There’s nothing so bad that it mightn’t be worse ”’ was his favorite say- ing under the most adverse circumstances. “Pretty warm, Mr. Harrison; but I’ve seen -t warmer by at least ten degrees on the equator,” he said cheertully. I growled something to the effect that I didn’t want to see it any hotter. Captain Parks, who had been down for a look 2t the barometer, said likewise. “Hark! Is that thunder?” he suddenly exclaimed. A low, inarticulate rumble echoed sullenly over the oily expanse, yet there was not the sign of a cloud in the steely sky. No, 1t could not be thunder. Again came the mysterious rumble, louder and nearer. It was attended by a strange quivering or vibration of the oily surface, which, communicating itself to the brig’s hull, caused her to tremble in every timber. ‘“ A submarine earthquake,” said Captain Parks, concisely. As we stood half awe struck a strange phenomenon suddenly prescnted GONG OOO UN ceo